A Virtual Universe (VU) is a computer-based simulated world or environment; other terms for VU's include metaverses, “3-D Internet” and Virtual World, and VU will be understood to represent any of these environments. Users inhabit and traverse a VU, and interact with other VU users through the use of an avatar, a graphical representation of the user often taking the form of a cartoon-like human though any graphic image may be utilized. In order to participate within or inhabit a VU a user creates an agent which functions as the user's account, and upon which the user builds an avatar tied to an inventory of assets the user owns in the VU and associated with the agent.
VU assets, avatars, the VU environment, and anything presented to a user as visual information comprise Universally Unique Identifiers (UUID's) tied to geometric data distributed to users as textual coordinates, textures distributed to users as graphics files (in some examples as a JPEG2000 file), and effects data rendered by the user's client computer according to the user's preferences and user's computer system device capabilities. Many VU's are represented using three dimensional (3-D) graphics and landscapes and are populated by many thousands of users or “residents,” often resembling the real world or fantasy/fictional worlds in terms of physics, houses, landscapes and in interpersonal communications with other users.
Large robust VU's and massively multiplayer online games, such as for example Second Life® (SECOND LIFE is a trademark of Linden Research, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries), Entropia Universe™ (ENTROPIA UNIVERSE is a registered trademark of MindArk PE AB in the United States, other countries, or both), The Sims Online™ (THE SIMS ONLINE is a trademark of Electronic Arts, Inc in the United States, other countries, or both), and There™ (THERE is a trademark of Makena Technologies, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both) render and display detailed, large and complex graphic environments within which users may travel and participate as if a character in an expressionistic or fantastical fictional world or within a realistic or representational approximation of real life.
VU's are also commonly defined with respect to VU regions, virtual areas of land within the VU typically residing on a single server, with each region amenable to provision and management by a one or more participating providers. The size and complexity and variety of resources found in a VU are related to the number of providers participating and hosting regions through server hosting. And the success of a VU may depend upon attracting users and keeping them engaged and participating in the VU environment, thereby adding value to the providers who bear the cost in providing VU region content and services (and correspondingly expect an appropriate level of multiple-user engagement as a return on their investment), as well as for other users who wish to engage many others in a large virtual community. For example, an informational or service-related region managed by a non-profit organization may desire or expect a given level of VU user engagement and participation, and commercial region providers may desire to engage in a given level of commercial transactions (e.g. sales) or achieve a level of marketing exposure among VU users.
Participants in virtual universes, whether novices or long-time residents, suffer from problems related to incomplete information about activities and resources in the virtual universe. Recent visitors or novice residents of virtual universes suffer from inefficiencies due to infancy: they have a limited knowledge of what is occurring in that universe, and they have a very limited and frequently incorrect understanding of what resources are available to them, and how to access those resources. Novices and visitors also generally lack an understanding of what the infrastructure and other residents expect of them, and how to behave in the virtual system. Thus, in one aspect, an unsupervised novice may have an unsatisfying VU experience, making the novice less likely to find value in engaging the VU and either remaining in engagement or returning for a subsequent engagement.
Long-time residents may also suffer from an inability to access information beyond their immediate horizon. The availability of new resources may be unknown to them or may be beyond the ability of conventional virtual advertising and notification systems to educate them. They may also not be aware of how their behavior is expected to change based on major new developments in the universe or its community. Long-time residents and those experienced in VU environment applications may also become disillusioned and less likely to consume or partake of services in a preferred or appropriate manner, sometimes actively and intentionally to disrupt the activities of other residents for entertainment. And as long-time and skilled residents are likely to have enough knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the virtual universe infrastructure (individually, but especially in groups) to enable unintentional or intentional stressing of the underlying infrastructure, their disruptive actions may interfere with the ability of the VU providers to provide quality experiences for other users, and in one respect may damage a positive sense of community within the VU unless they are properly supervised.
Prior art methods and processes for providing information and guidance to users with regard to proper behavior and the positive attributes of a VU commonly include books, magazines and newsletters (whether on-line or conventional). For novices school-like sessions in protected portions of the universe may be offered, in one respect where novices can attempt to matriculate from infants to adolescents. However, a user is generally required to actively seek out and choose to avail himself of such resources, and a user is not likely to voluntarily make this choice if investments of time, attention and effort are required, and even then a given resource may not appropriately or efficiently match the optimal learning style of the user. And the disillusioned griefer user bent on causing mischief cannot be expected to voluntarily observe all the rules and accepted norms of a given VU. Moreover, guideline resources are usually composed or programmed and then subsequently issued or implemented, and thus provide a relatively static articulation of the objectives of the virtual universe and the expected user which may become obsolete or even erroneous if not updated, adapted or modified as current norms shift within a given virtual universe.